An autumn tradition: Shakespeare in the North Country

It’s time once again for a favorite part of fall, the American Shakespeare Center performances, and your favorite duty, which is telling others that FREE tickets are now available at the Brewer Bookstore and the Sullivan Student Center. For those who shamelessly procrastinate, FREE tickets should be available at the door of each night's performance.  Since they are FREE, I might be wrong, and if I am, shame on you!

If you’re new to St. Lawrence University, the American Shakespeare Center’s touring troupe, based in Staunton, VA, has visited us for nearly 25 years, since 1992 (we’re one of only 3 colleges in the country with such a long relationship). The actors bring us three shows a year, typically two of Shakespeare’s plays and one from his era, and offer workshops here as well. This year, however, we’ll get to see a late-Victorian comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest, along with Henry V, and Julius Caesar. These are modified original practices performances: the house lights stay on, the actors do not perform on an elevated stage (you’re encouraged to stand up to see, as some in Shakespeare’s audience would have done), there are no microphones, and there is lots of music. It’s a lot of fun, particularly if you sit in the front row, where you might become part of the action.


All tickets are FREE this year, but as always I do recommend picking them up early, and arriving to the shows around a half hour early, to catch some of the pre-show music and to get a great seat.

All performances are in Eben Holden Center. The schedule is:

• Thursday, October 8, 7:30 pm, Henry V
• Friday, October 9, 7:30 pm, Henry V
• Saturday, October 10, 7:30 pm, Julius Caesar
• Saturday, October 10, Midnight, The Importance of Being Earnest
• Sunday, October 11, 5:30 pm, The Importance of Being Earnest

Do note that SLU’s traditional midnight performance (did you know we are the only campus in the country for whom the actors are willing to perform at midnight?)—my consistent pick for best show, year after year; there’s some adrenaline in that room—has moved from Friday to Saturday. Sunday’s performance, too, has moved later into the evening by popular request.

Finally, this year, we’re featuring two events in conjunction with the performances:
• a FREE lecture by Dr. Sarah Skwire of the Liberty Fund on “Political Economics in Henry V” in Sykes at 8 pm on Wednesday, October 7
• a FREE panel discussion on “The Economics of Performance and Production” featuring PCA’s own Zip Trainor, visiting ASC actor Andrew Goldwasser, and Dr. Skwire at noon on Thursday, October 8 in Eben Holden North (you’re encouraged to bring a brown bag lunch)

[Shamelessly plagiarized in large part from a campus email sent by Sarah Barber of the English Department and there is nothing you can do about it.  So there!]

magic is no blowhard

The usual "analysis" on sports shows includes a lot of yelling and opinions, almost all of it negative. All heat and little light, analogous to blue flame of flatulence ignition.

I watched this ESPN post-game "analysis" of the Mavs winning the NBA championship. It has the usual blowhards looking for someone to blame and put down (as if that takes any analysis). However, Magic Johnson is not the usual ESPN, loud-mouthed blowhard. He actually analyzes what went wrong and offers constructive advice as to how the Heat and James can move forward.

BTW, the Dallas head coach is a North Country boy! Rick Carlisle hails from from Lisbon, New York.

make plans for shakespeare in october@slu

American Shakespeare Center

2011-2012 Almost Blasphemy Tour

SCHEDULE OF PERFORMANCES

All performances at 7:30 p.m. except where otherwise noted

VENUE: Eben Holden Hall @ SLU

Monday, October 24– The Winter’s Tale

Tuesday, October 25 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Wednesday, October 26 - ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore

(Thursday – day off)

Friday, October 28 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Friday, October 28/29 – ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore – MIDNIGHT

Saturday, October 29 – The Winter’s Tale

Sunday, October 30 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream – 1:30 p.m. Matinee

driving while female

Just just coincidence? From Wronging Rights:

Re-ignition of protests against the female driving ban in Saudia Arabia occurs right around the same time as the re-ignition of a certain Summer blockbuster series. Will the history books cite the Arab Spring or Diesel Summer as inspiration?

When viewing note the gender inclusiveness of vehicle operation:

The 20% female participation rate is radically high by Saudi standards!

international security threat levels

Below is a compendium of security threat levels from various countries. Although RB received a forwarded email attributing this to John Cleese, a careful scholarly inquiry (i.e., searched "clesse terrortist therat" before Google automatically corrected for misspellings, but RB did not use Wikipedia), indicates that John Humberstone seems to be the primary original author, with useful additions provided by various reader comments.

Here are the threat levels with minor editing:

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance."

The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose."

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

Canada has also raised its threat level from "No problem, eh?" to "That's not nice and please stop." They may still raise the level further to "Apologize to terrorists we offended by asking them to stop." Of course the top level is painting signs on rooftops with arrows pointing south saying "U.S. THAT WAY."

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

testing communist cars

In this morning's introductory economics class we discussed the practical, inherent problems with centrally planned socialist economies -- like the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe in the bad old days before the Berlin Wall fell.

A colleague told me about the following video and now I'm having my students watch it. It is from the British TV show Top Gear. I do find it a bit ironic that these two smart-alecks make fun of Communist cars, given that the Brits during the 1960's made some of the free world's worst cars. You probably have never heard of most of the British car models mentioned. They were all bad, very bad, and these guys know it; their viewers know it. However, that is part of the humor. So this clip could be titled "Best of Communism v. the Free World's Worst."

(Vocab lesson: biro is a British term for a ball-point pen.) BTW, my favorite part is the drag race.

an economist's chanukah

Eight days of the Festival of Lights (Chanukah, Hanukkah, or whatever) is ending so I offer these four items:

#1 The principles of economics explanation of the miracle of Chanukah
[HT: him | Source ]



#2 The Econ Chanukah Song
(With Apologies to Adam Sandler)
[Source: the original post on December 4, 2007]

Put on your yarmulke
Here comes Chanukah
Lots of Economica
Celebrates Chanukah
Chanukah is the festival of lights
Avoid diminishing returns with eight crazy nights

When you feel like the only kid in town without Christmas utility
Here’s a list of economists who are jewish just like you and me
Paul Samuelson lights the menorah in the evenin’
So do Solow, Stiglitz and the late Milton Friedman

Guess who eats together at the Fed reserve deli
Alan Greenspan and Chairman Ben Bernanke
Akerlof’s part jewish, Herb Simon’s part too
Bundle them together, what a fine econ jew

You don’t need jingle bell or a yule log
cause you can spin a dreidel at the Becker/ Posner blog- both jewish

Put on your yarmulke
It's time for Chanukah
the author of Freakonomikah
Celebrates Chanukah

Robert Mugabe, not a jew! Or an economist!
But guess who is? Nobel prize winners Ken Arrow and Simon Kuznets too
We got Herb Stein and his son’s Ben’s money
David Ricardo was born jewish- but went Quaker for his honey

Some people know that Paul Krugman is
He hasn’t won a Nobel prize
but three others did --- This YEAR!
So many jews are econ wiz kids
Greg Mankiw isn’t, but I heard his book agent is

So study your Economica
It's time to celebrate chanukah
I hope I get published in Econometrikah
Oh this lovely, lovely chanukah

So find your equilibriah
And check your heteroskedisticas
If you really, really wannakah
Have a happy, happy, happy, happy chanukah
Happy chanukah!

#3 Jewish Economists: the list

#4 Jewish Nobel Prize Winners in Economics: the list
(42% of world total, 55% of US total)

Be blessed!
RB

the wellspring of economic growth and progress

I am a student of economic growth and development. In last Saturday's issue of the Wall Street Journal Scott Adams, creator of the cartoon Dilbert, had a column outlining an important key to economic progress heretofore unnoticed: hamster-brained sociopath bosses.

The Wall Street Journal
November 6, 2010, p. C3

The Perfect Stimulus: Bad Management

If no one had a hamster-brained sociopath for a boss, who would start new businesses?

By SCOTT ADAMS

One of my earliest childhood jobs involved shoveling manure at my uncle's dairy farm in upstate New York. Things were going well until my uncle explained that no matter how well I performed, I would never be promoted to farmer. Or even cow. I had hit the manure ceiling.

I consider that experience my first economic stimulus package—the unwelcome realization that my current job was a dead end. While my classmates were building snowmen with carrot noses (mostly the girls) and carrot genitalia (mostly the boys), I started to do some serious career planning about how to get out of the fecal relocation profession and into the warm embrace of a loving corporation. I studied hard, and I earned money for college by mowing lawns, shoveling snow, shoveling even more manure, and (my personal favorite) shoveling frozen manure covered with snow. I saved my meager funds, and with the help of my parents, who both took extra jobs, plus a few scholarships, I clawed my way into college.

Years later, my dream came true. I got a job with a large bank, and I never again needed to shovel manure. Corporations use something called PowerPoint instead. Thanks to my farm training, I was so good at designing PowerPoint slides that my coworkers called me "The Natural." Jaws dropped when I introduced my signature move: the frozen PowerPoint slide with snow on top.

In those days, I was a furious bundle of ambition and determination. The old-timers told me I had a "rocket strapped to my ass." All I needed to do was get my "ticket punched." It wasn't long before I was able to enjoy my second economic stimulus package: bad management.

Though most of my immediate bosses were entirely reasonable and competent, the organization at large was riddled with hamster-brained sociopaths in leadership roles. Surely, I thought, this must be a problem that exists no place else on Earth. Otherwise we'd all be living in caves and holding long meetings on the feasibility of using sticks as stabby things.

One day, a position opened above me, and I was the most obvious candidate to fill it. My boss called me into her office and said she had some bad news. She explained that the media was giving our company a lot of heat because almost all of our managers and executives were white males. Promoting me, she explained, would only make things worse. I asked how long I might need to wait for all of this to blow over. My boss was vague, but she said the timeline involved smoothing out the effects of two centuries of corporate discrimination.

I decided to jump ship and go where my talent and hard work would be rewarded. I took a job at the local phone company and soon discovered, to my horror, that banking was not the only industry in the world managed by hamster-brained sociopaths. Once again, my immediate bosses were quite capable, but interacting with other departments was like being the last human in Zombieville and trying to buy groceries at dusk. Still, it was marginally better than shoveling manure, so I doubled down. I finished my MBA classes at night and distinguished myself as an up-and-comer. One day my boss called me into his office and explained that the media was giving the phone company a lot of heat because almost all of the managers and executives were white males. So, he explained, promoting me would only make things worse. You might say that was the day that the "Dilbert" comic strip was born, although I had not yet drawn one. Let's call it a tipping point. From that day on, I considered myself an entrepreneur. All I had to do was figure out what business I was in. The phone company was willing to pay for almost any sort of semi-relevant training or education that I was willing to endure. It was like an accidental school for entrepreneurs. From an economic viewpoint, I was in exactly the right place, with exactly the right amount of career discomfort.

I wasn't suffering alone. Many of my co-workers already had active side businesses and ambitious expansion plans. The guy in the cubicle behind me was running a concert equipment rental business. Across from me was a guy running a computer tech support business. We had Amway dealers, Mary Kay sales people, inventors, authors and just about any other business you can imagine. That's not counting all of the business plans in the incubation phase. I think we all understood that working in a cubicle and being managed by Satan's learning-challenged little brother was not a recipe for happiness.

The way I describe it may sound pessimistic, but consider the alternative. Imagine a parallel universe where employees enjoy going to work. They feel empowered and fulfilled—so much so that they don't care about the size of their paychecks and never want to leave their jobs. That's exactly the sort of nightmare scenario that would destroy the economy. The last thing this world needs is a bunch of dopey-happy workers who can't stop humming and grinning. Our system requires a continuous supply of highly capable people who are so disgruntled with their jobs that they are willing to chew off their own arms to escape their bosses. The economy needs hamster-brained sociopaths in management to drive down the opportunity cost of entrepreneurship. Luckily, we're blessed with an ample supply.

To put it in plainer terms: The primary purpose of management is to kill any hope that staying in your current job will work out for you. That sort of hope is like gravel in the engine of progress. The economy needs workers who are fed up, desperate and willing to quit their jobs for something better. Remember, only quitters can be winners, because you can't do something great until first you quit doing something that isn't.

You see this same dynamic with countries. The United States is a nation founded by people who couldn't stand the leaders of their old homelands. I'm no geneticist, but I suspect that the "screw it, I'm out of here" attitude can get passed on. We're probably the most disgruntled, self-loathing, hard-to-satisfy people on Earth. It's no wonder our GDP is awesome.

Israel is another perfect example. The entire nation is full of people who were displeased with their last situation. And Israel's economy is one of the most vibrant in the world. If every Israeli became satisfied at once, they couldn't keep the lights on for a week.

I have always assumed there's a correlation between imagination and risk-taking. You wouldn't leave an unpleasant but relatively safe situation unless you could imagine a better outcome. So the people who leave a company first tend to be the visionaries who can best imagine entrepreneurial success. The last wave of people who leave are usually excreted just before the door is chained. They didn't imagine it would happen so soon. Bad management is how imagination gets wings.

—Scott Adams is the creator of 'Dilbert.'
[source]

here's why koufax improves my productivity

From THE ECONOMIST

Animal and human behaviour
Manager's best friend:
Dogs improve office productivity

Aug 12th 2010

THERE are plenty of studies which show that dogs act as social catalysts, helping their owners forge intimate, long-term relationships with other people. But does that apply in the workplace? Christopher Honts and his colleagues at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant were surprised to find that there was not much research on this question, and decided to put that right. They wondered in particular if the mere presence of a canine in the office might make people collaborate more effectively. And, as they told a meeting of the International Society for Human Ethology in Madison, Wisconsin, on August 2nd, they found that it could. To reach this conclusion, they carried out two experiments. In the first, they brought together 12 groups of four individuals and told each group to come up with a 15-second advertisement for a made-up product. Everyone was asked to contribute ideas for the ad, but ultimately the group had to decide on only one. Anyone familiar with the modern “collaborative” office environment will know that that is a challenge. Some of the groups had a dog underfoot throughout, while the others had none. After the task, all the volunteers had to answer a questionnaire on how they felt about working with the other—human—members of the team. Mr Honts found that those who had had a dog to slobber and pounce on them ranked their team-mates more highly on measures of trust, team cohesion and intimacy than those who had not. In the other experiment, which used 13 groups, the researchers explored how the presence of an animal altered players’ behaviour in a game known as the prisoner’s dilemma. In the version of this game played by the volunteers, all four members of each group had been “charged” with a crime. Individually, they could choose (without being able to talk to the others) either to snitch on their team-mates or to stand by them. Each individual’s decision affected the outcomes for the other three as well as for himself in a way that was explained in advance. The lightest putative sentence would be given to someone who chose to snitch while the other three did not; the heaviest penalty would be borne by a lone non-snitch. The second-best outcome came when all four decided not to snitch. And so on. Having a dog around made volunteers 30% less likely to snitch than those who played without one. The moral, then: more dogs in offices and fewer in police stations.

dad life & swagger wagon

[ht jeff k.]


[ht kwabena]

a childhood sports hero.

Today #2 son took me to a place I have long wanted to visit: The Muhammad Ali Center. This multi-story museum is in downtown Louisville and overlooks the Ohio River.

My dad was a boxing fan so I watched a lot of fights on TV when I grew up. I was in grade school when Cassius Clay, as Ali was known, turned pro. My earliest memory of Ali is from before he was champ, a press conference where he and the fifty-year-old Archie Moore were promoting their upcoming fight - a fight that everyone knew, except for me, was less of a fight than a publicity stunt for Ali and just a paycheck for the once-great Moore.

I loved the brash, always confident, loud-mouthed Ali with his humorous poems declaring his greatness, the futility of trying to beat him, and what would happen to anyone who tried. No one ever acted like that in sports before. I was too young and naive to appreciate just how revolutionary it was that it was an African-American doing it.

Ali was fast, unusual for a heavyweight, and fun to watch fight. After he beat Liston to become world champ, just about all his fights seemed to be televised on ABC's Wide World of Sports. Ali fought everyone. There was no one who came close to him in the 1960's. I realize now that was why he was on TV so much: No big gates for a one-sided fight. He even traveled to Europe to try to make some money by fighting out-ranked boxers on their home turf.

I never understood his treatment, the hostility, the stripping him of his crown, when he made the courageous and principled decision to refuse induction into the military.

He was the greatest. I had no other sports heroes. I loved the Dodgers, but even their great players were not my heroes. Most kids want to grow up and do what their heroes did. Not me. God did not bless me with the the needed upper-body strength. Even at a young age I never had any illusions of someday being a boxer.

Ali has always been amazing and surprising. He is The Greatest.

Be blessed!
RB

why i didn't get much work done yesterday

Has this ever happened to you?



This is especially cool if you've been there. Otherwise watch it and save a trip:



An obnoxious, but honest, commercial....




LINK: If God Had Texted the 10 commandments.

A pictorial critical review of the book Twilight:

just being helpful....

For a context listen to this sermon.

old guy's rant

Louis C.K. talks on Conan O'brien about technology from Nathan Lunde-Berry on Vimeo.

scholarly research actually saves time

on leadership

Scott Adams, creator of the cartoon Dilbert, in Saturday's Wall Street Journal,

When companies make money, we assume they are well-managed. That perception is reinforced by the CEOs of those companies who are happy to tell you all the clever things they did to make it happen. The problem with relying on this source of information is that CEOs are highly skilled in a special form of lying called leadership. Leadership involves convincing employees and investors that the CEO has something called a vision, a type of optimistic hallucination that can come true only in an environment in which the CEO is massively overcompensated and the employees have learned to be less selfish.

rb's favorite graduation speech

Commencement addresses are often quite forgettable. I must listen to several each year. In the past 25+ years, I can remember only two bits from any of the the speeches I had to sit through:

• (1) The first paragraph of an essay can usually be deleted.
• (2) Always leave a tip for the maid in a hotel or motel.

This year at the 2010 St. Lawrence University Commencement, Harvard School of Divinity's Rev. Peter Gomes give the best graduation speech I've ever heard. It was just the right mixture of light humor and just a little serious content. Ideal for an occasion where people are not especially paying attention as they await the handing out of diplomas.

Listen to Dr. Gomes speech.

how to monetize your site

take it from a pro: i have a plan

Do one thing a day from the following list and slowly but surely you will consistently and constantly be able TO TICK PEOPLE OFF . Take it from a pro: You do not need to have natural talent; it just takes a little discipline.

1. Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
2. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
3. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
4. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
5. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
6. Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
7. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
8. Practice making fax and modem noises.
9. Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
10. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
11. Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
12. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
13. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
14. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
15. Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
16. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
17. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
18. Honk and wave to strangers.
19. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
20. TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
21. type only in lowercase.
22. dont use any punctuation either
23. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
24. Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
"DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
"What?"
"Never mind, it's gone now."
25. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
26. Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
27. Ask people what gender they are.
28. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
29. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
30. Sing along at the opera.
31. Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
32. Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles."

** RB's BONUS: Tell people to do one thing a day from a list each month and have 32 items on the list.

market madness brackets

See the results of last year's contest over the causes of the financial meltdown: MARKET MADNESS. All brackets and all the competitors and all the results!

CLICK THIS LINK!